Dr. Jerry Haskin, 78, and Dr. Jack Voight, 79, were among those arrested on suspicion of filing the phony claims through three New Orleans-area clinics: Health Plus, Saturn Health Care and New Millenium Health Care.

Clinic associates paid kickbacks to "marketers" and "recruiters" to find and transport patients, allowing them to bill for phantom or unnecessary procedures, according to a criminal complaint unsealed this week. Some patients got prescription pain drugs for undergoing a battery of unnecessary tests, then passed on some of the drugs to the marketers.

Haskin is an anesthesiologist with an address on Lake Marina Avenue in West End and a license in good standing. He has been practicing for nearly 35 years. Reached by phone Tuesday evening, he said he could not talk about the case, referring questions to his attorney, who declined to comment.

"I knew it was coming out," Haskin said. "I didn't know what or where or why or anything else. I'm just getting the information myself."

Voight is listed as a general/family practice physician with a Kenner office called Health Plus Consulting, Inc. and 45 years in licensed practice. He could not be reached. The address, and a message on his phone number, cited a company called Best Medical Solutions.

Unneeded neurology tests, pulmonary tests, echocardiograms and other exams were rampant in the scheme, according to an affidavit by Artie Delaneuville, a special agent with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Khlgatian was the owner of Health Plus, with Voight as physician; Gasparyan owned Saturn Medical Group, with Haskin as the doctor; Haskin also was the doctor at New Millenium, which Mysak owned. Khlgatian and Gasparyan "personally paid drivers $100 cash for every patient brought to the clinic that had a 'red, white and blue insurance card' signifying a Medicaid patient," the affidavit states.

Girod often drove patients to the clinics, in exchange for cash from Khlgatian, which she would exchange` for pills from patients, according to the affidavit.

In a seemingly typical case, a kidney transplant patient came to Voight for a routine checkup and back spasms.

First, though, two "'Russian females"' took the patient's vital signs and "performed some version of a breathing, EKG, ultrasound and nerve test. The nerve test involved a technician touching the (patient) with a metal object which caused a small shock. Voight did not discuss the results of any of the tests but told the patient that the back spasms were due to the kidney surgery," the affidavit says. " Health Plus then billed Medicare for a raft of tests and six pulmonary procedures, the affidavit states.

It appears the recent arrests might be linked to another federal health care fraud probe.

Jo Ann Girod, 38, of Marrero, was convicted in February of nine counts of health care fraud for receiving kickbacks and helping a local company, A New Beginning of New Orleans Inc., defraud Medicaid.

Special Agent Sheila Thorne, spokeswoman for the FBI's New Orleans office, was unable to say whether Girod is the same woman included in the most recent criminal complaint, though her name and age are the same.

Girod was convicted in that case of allowing A New Beginning to pretend to provide personal care services to her three children, who were Medicaid recipients, in order to receive cash payments. Medicaid paid the company slightly more than $65,000 on her behalf, but it is unclear how much money Girod received in kickbacks, according to federal prosecutors.

Girod was the 11th person convicted in the investigation linked to that company. She is scheduled to be sentenced in June and faces up to 90 years in prison.